Wireless telephone users are typically charged based on the time of day that a call is made and the length of the call. Typically, a price per minute, or rate, is set for a block of time during the day that is higher than the rate charged at night or on weekends. Rates charged at night or on weekends, commonly referred to as “off-peak” rates, are normally lower than daytime rates, or “peak” rates, due to the reduced demand for phone usage during nights and weekends.
Due in part to the reduced demand for off-peak calls, some calling plans offer unlimited calls during these times. A “calling plan” refers to a rate structure or cost structure used by telephone service providers for charging a customer for phone use. Many calling plans and their associated rate structures are imposed by a phone service provider and chosen by a user. A particular user's calling plan is typically defined in a contract between the phone service provider and the user. Phone service providers typically charge users a periodic fee, normally a monthly fee, under a calling plan for telephone service.
Telephone service providers typically charge users for units of time, or minutes, during which a call is made or received. Although for ease of presentation, the term “minute” is used herein to refer to a unit of time used for telephone network services, other units of time could be substituted. The term “minute” is also often used to refer to a credit of time which may be used by the user to make telephone calls. Telephone service providers also may offer “minutes” as time credits to users for purchase and use. Minutes useable during peak times are often referred to as “Daytime” minutes, while minutes useable during off-peak times are often referred to as “Night and Weekend” minutes. Some calling plans offer minutes which do not depend on the time at which they are used. These minutes are commonly referred to as “Anytime” minutes.
In one type of calling plan common in the wireless telephone industry, the user is allowed to make a set amount of calls during periods of times defined by the calling plan for which there is no additional charge above the user's monthly fee. Although this type of calling plan is more predominant in the wireless telephone setting, similar calling plan structures may be implemented in conventional wired networks or other networks. In such a calling plan structure, the amount of time included in the user's monthly fee is typically measured in discrete minute increments. In other words, if a user makes a call that lasts ten and one half minutes, eleven minutes are used from the calling plan. A calling plan may include a large number of minutes or even unlimited calls during off-peak times, but include a smaller number of minutes for peak calls. After the user has used his allocated minutes, he is typically charged a price per minute for additional calls.
Often the amount of minutes allocated for peak or off-peak times expires at the end of a billing cycle. A billing cycle is the period of time for which a user receives a bill. Billing cycles are typically monthly. In typical calling plans, if the plan includes 120 peak minutes per month, and the user only uses ten minutes of peak time, the user loses the remaining 110 minutes at the end of the month. At the beginning of each month, he will have exactly 120 peak minutes that he can only use during the billing cycle.
It is difficult in conventional systems for a user to track or monitor the user's phone usage to maximize the value of calling plans. If the user does not know how many minutes included in the calling plan remain, he might not make a call to avoid receiving additional charges. Sometimes users unintentionally exceed the minutes included in their calling plans. When users are surprised by the charges incurred from exceeding the usage included in the calling plan, customer dissatisfaction and irritation often results.
Conventional wireless telephones employ various methods for tracking time usage. These phones typically employ software for monitoring phone usage and displaying the information on a user display screen. Some phones track the total amount of time that a call takes and display this information to the user from a menu. Some phones divide time usage between incoming and outgoing calls such that users may view the time totals of calls made or calls received. Some phones record the length of the last call made. This information is recorded on a “timer,” by which is meant a software construct for recording and tracking the length of calls. The timer, or more specifically, the information recorded by the timer, is viewed by the user on the wireless phone display.
In conventional systems, the information recorded by the timers does not relate to the typical calling plan structures and the limits imposed by the calling plans. Users may know the total number of minutes that the phone has been used, but not the time of day that the call is made. Total phone usage is irrelevant to many calling plan structures, which are based on the time that the calls were made. In conventional systems, the only way that users can accurately track the number or minutes used during peak or off-peak hours is to manually track the length of these calls. This requires the user to write down or record the length of every call with a note regarding the time of day that the call was made. Most users are unwilling or unable to track their usage with this amount of detail.
These and other problems are avoided and numerous advantages are provided by the system and method described herein.